Abstract:

In South Africa, the information about the distribution and activity of anaerobic ammonium
oxidizing (anammox) bacteria is very limited and anammox systems have not yet been tested and
implemented. In this study, the existence and diversity of the anammox bacteria from various
South African habitats are investigated. Batch systems were used to enrich anammox biomass from
sludge collected from three Pretoria municipal wastewater treatment works. Anammox activity was
tested and detected in two of the three wastewater treatment works after 90 days of primary
enrichment. The activity was confirmed by consumption of both NH4
C and NO2
¡ in the system. The
presence of anammox bacteria was also confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification
of the 16s rRNA of the anammox using anammox-specific primers. All clones retrieved were closely
related to Brocadia species and were most abundant in all habitats tested. The maximum growth
rate of anammox was also estimated on both experiments using a relatively new model.